The Villaroman clan welcomed 2012 with great expectancy and excitement. The excitement was centered around 31 March 2012 when all seven of us children with our complete families were to gather in Virginia, USA, to witness our Papa Melo Sr and Mama Luz walk the aisle again. They were to profess before God’s throne to continue loving and serving one another, not just a bit more, but to the fullest their hearts can give, after 50 years of wonderful matrimony! We thought we were ready for everything. But it turned out we were not. On March 13, while twiddling with the computer in my sister Wowie’s home in Virginia, Papa slumped to the floor, brought down by an acute, massive stroke just seventeen days before their big golden day. A clot in his brain’s middle cerebral artery, a major channel of blood to the cerebrum, would take away Papa’s speech, rendering his body’s right side extremely weak and almost costing him his life. This event would raise the great gifts of faith, hope and love in our family to new depths of service and sacrifice. We thank the Lord for He has formed the mettle of hearts within the family, that, while yet to navigate this deep far end of trials, were being made ready by His Spirit the past 50 years. He has been pouring and building up within the family a very special kind of love designed to be victorious for such of life’s tribulations – that which can heal and stand firm amidst blows, and remain triumphant with the certainty that flows out of the rising of Christ. Praise be to God for granting us eyes of faith that, while shedding tears of grief, never fail to see far greater reasons for thanksgiving! We praise God for allowing the stroke to happen in Virginia, just two days after our parents arrived in the US. Had it happened in the plane, my Dad had very little chance of surviving. We thank God that my brother-in-law Noel was at home the day Papa dropped to the floor, when on a typical day he should have been at work. His immediate action to call hospital emergency allowed the swift administration of time-crucial medication that would help bust Papa’s major clot. However, this double-edged medication would also render a grievous side effect – it caused bleeding in our Papa’s brain that, the neurosurgeon warned earlier, caused death in many past cases. We thank God for the prayers of many in CFC around the world. After a harrowing half-day period when it appeared Papa would not wake up anymore, and the doctor was already readying my brother Rico with the worst scenarios, the hemorrhaging miraculously stopped, and Dad woke up! After two weeks in the critical care of the Reston Hospital, my brothers and sisters brought my Dad back home to my sister Wowie’s house in Virginia. When I, Nini and our two sons arrived from Manila and saw him in my sister’s house for the first time since the stroke, it was a very emotional moment. I was so used to seeing him active in sports, dynamic in his intelligent expression, especially when giving me advice regarding the CFC mission, it was just momentarily too much to bear seeing him motion-limited and speechless for the first time in my life. My heart uncontrollably wept for him, and cried out to the Lord for healing, defying my own instruction to my sons not to show sorrow in front of their Grandpa. What my father’s words and mine could not convey at that moment, both our tears expressed. My father’s own tears reminded me and my sons it was OK to cry. The next few days, we all felt the Lord’s gentle hands wiping the tears from my father’s and our eyes, and filling my sister’s home with inexplicable joy. My brother Rico became an expert barber, giving my father a manual Gillete-clean shave every two days. I and my brother Manny became instant reflexologists, working some energy back to my father’s right foot and right leg through daily massage. My sister Wowie and brother-in-law Noel became excellent cooks feeding the Villaroman battalion in their home everyday, more importantly, delighting my dad with dishes like “kare-kare” that seemed to help bring back to his cognizance flashes of the previously-familiar, with every bite. My eldest sister Ate Canyl was our strategist and finance officer, gathering the whole family to develop and support long-term plans for our Papa’s rehabilitation. My youngest sister Anne became our musical conductor, preparing us to be an instant choir for the Anniversary Holy Mass that the family discerned will push through by the grace of God. She would also lead the grandchildren at home to suddenly break into “Spiritual GLEE-like” songs of offering for Papa that always brought a jubilant smile on his face. Our youngest brother Ed, Doctor Ed to many, is God’s great gift of giving Papa, Mama, and each one of us, one among the best Cardio-Thoracic surgeons in the Philippines as our personal physician and healer. The Villaroman spouses-in-law (of course my biased favorite of all is my very own Nini) do not deserve to be called just that, for each of them served and sacrificed silently like Papa and Mama’s true sons and daughters, not by law, but by great love. Every evening, we gathered as a big true household, around our authentic household heads Papa and Mama, to worship the Lord and invoke healing. Actually, with an army of musically-talented grandchildren active in the CFC Family Ministries, it was more like a Family Ministries Praisefest or a “Proclaim the Greatness of the Lord” conference every night in Wowie’s house. In those evenings, we thanked the Lord that even if Papa could not speak yet, his heart remains free to worship the Lord, and claim his healing. His arms raised despite pain, his lips mumbling the lyrics to “Great and Wonderful,” “Behold,” “Mighty King of Zion,” and “How Great is our God,” have inspired each one of us to worship the Lord with our all to the end of our lives. We praised God for the selfless love and service of Mama to Papa – we decided recently that we did not have to hire a caregiver for Papa, because Mama’s attention and service to Papa’s needs were that of a “love-giver” or “sacrifice-giver” that no hired hand can ever match. And we thanked the Lord even for this trial He has allowed to happen to Papa. We realized how special and unique the love is, that He has poured and built upon the family through Papa and Mama. This is the kind of love that perpetuates only if expressed fully through deep service and sacrifice. This trial the Lord allowed brings with it the blessing and opportunity for each of us children and grandchildren to dig deep, serve fully, and love immensely, so that this special love will continue to bless generations. How great our God is! The starting point of Papa’s struggle after the stroke included a condition called “global or total aphasia,” or the loss of the ability to express and understand speech and other forms of communication. The journey to recovery will be very tough, but we trust that nothing is impossible with God’s faithful love. Papa and Mama have presented and built great love upon this family, that has become a foundation, strong like rock. Papa and the family might be going through storms today, but we will not be shaken. This love, too, has begotten great fruits, becoming the love of the family that surrounds Papa today, a special kind of love, the love of God that will surely heal Papa, and bless each one of us. During the eve of their 50th Golden Anniversary Wedding, we were gathered around Papa, coaching him so that during Mass the next day, he can be ready to give the priest a nod, after he will be asked if he were to accept Mama as his beloved wife and love forever. He was visibly distressed having to exert humongous effort by his yet unhealed cerebrum to understand our instructions and express himself. Suddenly, he asked for a piece of paper and pen. And then he wrote, slowly and with great difficulty, but very clearly -- “I DO U LOVE.” He was telling Mama in his physical brokenness that he would walk the altar again and again and proclaim “I do love you and will marry you!” Even his inadvertently jumbled grammar would make perfect sense. All his life, he DID LOVE for each one of us children, the kind that did not mind sacrificing and dying to oneself even when the world was not looking, the love that forgave and rose again after trials, which sowed seeds in the life of the young and bore fruits through time, blessing many. Holding back our tears of happiness, we immediately grabbed another clean sheet of white paper to write back in front of Papa, hoping he will be able to read and understand, even a little bit of what we wanted to tell him. We wrote, “PAPA, YOU ARE A BLESSING, A GREAT GIFT. DO NOT WORRY. GOD WILL HEAL YOU.” He nodded and flashed us a crooked but very sweet smile. Indeed, that is a miracle. As we see God working wonderfully in Papa and in us, every moment continues to be a miracle. Postscript: Melo Sr is back from the US and is now undergoing intensive speech and physical therapy at St Luke’s.  By Melo Villaroman Jr.